"Chinese researchers and entrepreneurs are among the best in the world, with technological innovations and good earnings in the sector," said Liu Lihua, vice minister of industry and information technology.

Logistics will play a critical role in fulfilling a seamless shopping experience in the era of the "New Retail", experts said.

China may have emerged as the world's largest consumer market by 2016-end, but it's only recently that steps to revolutionize the retail-scape have accelerated.

Twelve cities in China posted more than 1 trillion yuan of GDP in 2016, according to a report by news outlet 21st Century Business Herald.

At a recent meeting co-chaired by the State Administration of Taxation and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce aimed at deepening the country's tax reform to boost the development of private enterprises, Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce company, called for small e-commerce companies to be granted the same preferential tax reductions or exemptions as those given to small - and micro-sized enterprises.

Five companies based in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (E-town) won the Beijing Patent for Inventions Award on March 9, according to local media.